


I Can Read You Like A Book

by JustLaugh



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, High School, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 12:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17643266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustLaugh/pseuds/JustLaugh
Summary: In a world with superpowers, Clarke, still in high school, was blessed with mind reading and it had always been so easy to know what everyone thinks about. Too easy, really and not all the thoughts going through others' heads are worth reading. She had closed herself off after her father's death.Until one day, the Supreme Commander's daughter, Lexa arrived at their school for mysterious reason unknown and she found herself unable to read Lexa's mind.Read to find out more.





	1. I can read you like a book, or not

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, if any of you found this story verrrryyyyyy familiar, it's cause this is a re-post from my fanfiction.net. I am currently unable to access ff.net due to my new college being in a weird ass country that blocked ff.net, don't ask me why. 
> 
> Anyhow, I am re-posting it here finally, because I would like to continue this storyline. Sooo, stay tune, Clexa lovers. 
> 
> Note: I was unable to decide whether I wanted to write the story in past or present tense so this story's tenses are kind of messed up and I don't know how to fix it XD sooo, you know, I would appreciate if someone wants to proofread for me :P

Hundreds of years ago, something happened and changed everything that we know.

It would have been considered a very insignificant occurrence in the history of Earth… except it wasn’t. It was a tiny explosion, not very noticeable at all.

But nonetheless, it caused a significant change; the building that had caused the explosion was a laboratory. It was a state government secret, delving deep into biological alteration, splicing and several other unspeakable biological researches that would be better left unsaid.

That particular day, a stupid enough scientist caused an explosion while carrying out a top secret experiment. The whole lab exploded and burned down, no one in that building survived. All evidence and clue of what the building hid inside was destroyed.

And of course, that wasn’t the worst of the problems that had arisen. Everything went on as usual for a short month or so after that.

And then, all of a sudden people started dying… A lot of people went to the hospital for various pains they were going through. Almost none of the victims survived and things got worse, the doctors and medical personnel also started getting the infection and ended up dead too.

Whatever disease was causing people to drop dead like flies; started from the point of explosion and slowly spread out, like a circle expanding from that point. The spread was unaffected by wind, pressure, or temperature – only by its surety to spread in all direction unimpeded.

One thing was clear, whatever disease that had affected the people didn’t act on its first contact… The effect can only be seen after a month. So that’s why, only a month after the explosion, the effects were starting to be seen on people.

The explosion was started in United States of America. News spread, faster than the spread of whatever biological disease was going on, countries after countries closed off their borders, not wanting to let anyone carrying this devastating “disease” into their border.

What they had not predicted was that, it spread anyway. Some other countries yet unaffected decided to make a run for it… into space, with whatever resources they could salvage and run. Nobody knew what happened to those in space, but they were probably safe. Others hide in special bases or shelters, hoping that it would bypass them. That didn’t work at all, as they also started suffering or dying from it. Finally the world was covered with this disease, virus or whatever it is. It is now called, the A Revolutionary Clone, ARC for short.

ARC is unlike any disease anyone has ever seen, it comes in contact with you, buries into your skin. One ARC virus is enough to affect your whole body. It goes directly into your blood stream and implants itself into the nucleus of any of your living cells. Changing everything inside (that’s what gave it the name as ‘Revolutionary’), starting first with your DNA.

This is merely the start, after the complete alteration of one cell. It starts killing off your other “normal” living cells and replacing them with a clone of the altered cell. This goes on… until you die, unable to take the “revolution”.

Some others, who could withstand such revolution however, started to experience extreme pain in only one certain part of their body. Such that one person could suffer from pain in both eyes while another person could suffer from pain in both legs. There are several different sort of pains that survivors experienced: it could be the head, the nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, hands, legs, or even the whole body.

Even after ARC had been embedded into their cells, many of them still die, from being unable to withstand the pain coursing through their body. Many of them died in horrible ways: some pulled their own skin off their bodies, others amputated themselves to rid them of painful limbs, some even took out their own eyes; there are also several less gory deaths, such as shooting themselves in the head or heart. Although there are ALSO survivors who after severing themselves of their most “affected” body parts, didn’t die from blood loss or infections.

Finally after a long time, which we now call the end of the “revolution”, people ended up with super powers. The powers were relevant to the pain experienced: such that one who experienced leg pains ended up with super speed, one with eyes pain has super sight, or laser eyes and so on. There were many weird new super powers.

Unluckily for the people who dismembered themselves of their painful body parts, they ended up being what we now call “Disabled”, meaning they do not possess any super powers. And oddly enough, even though the Disabled’s DNA had been altered, any offspring of the Disabled would produce a Disabled child even if the other parent had powers.

The most common powers that people possessed are super speed, extreme elasticity or flexibility, super strength, laser eyes, shapeshifting, cloning, super hearing, super sight and super whatever and so on.

The more uncommon abilities would be any sorts of elements manipulation such as fire breathing, freezer (the ability to freeze anything with the look of an eye), electric whip etc., mind reading, animation (to move the undead and inanimate objects) and many more under that catergory.

The rare abilities are those who possess two abilities, or those who can manipulate others’ abilities such as power negation (cancel another person’s power for a period of time), power thief (mimic another’s ability for a set amount of time, but unable to mimic ALL abilities such as the rarest kinds, power control kind or mind control stuffs).

The rarest of all abilities are mostly the scariest, such as time stopping (but time stopping always has a limit of ten minutes, so be not so afraid), immortality (shoot them in the heart, throw them in lava or whatever will never kill them, unless by old age), resurrection (to bring back the dead, but only if they have died less than 5 minutes ago), power neutralizer (no one within a certain radius of them can use any abilities at all), environment control (manipulation of multiple elements), mind control (they can control anyone – even one’s partner of a hundred years would not be able to fight it, and would kill their partners on command) and maybe a few more. Lucky for us, people with such abilities HARDLY EVER exist.

There is also a strange rumour which I would like to address about people with three abilities, that is not physically possible in our world.

And that should conclude our history lecture as of today, next week we will be exploring into the wars that happened after the “revolution”. As most of you should know… unless you know nothing about history. The war was between every single survivor, the Disabled and the ARCs. The ARCs had no control of their own powers when they had first obtained them, The Disableds’ were fearful of the ARCs. And by the end of all wars, our Supreme Commander was the one who ended it all, saved us all. That’s why we are all here, happy, safe and in a school. The first of the wars was called The Sur-

“Professor, wasn’t that supposed to be next lecture?” Shouted Octavia, she is a nice student, except that she loves lunch and would hate to spend lunch time in a lecture.

“Right, thank you for the reminder,” said Professor Kane.

“As of now, have a great week, students. And remember, do not simply play with your abilities around in public, it is not ALWAYS good to reveal too much to people. And do not fight with your abilities in public.”

With that, all the students started packing their stuffs and getting ready for lunch.

The fastest one out of the classroom was Jasper, with his super speed, followed by his friend, Monty, a superhuman mentality, meaning he is a genius.

Clarke knows all about this and she ALWAYS knows. She is REALLY special and nobody knows about it, not even her parents or her friends. Mind readers thought her to be a mind reader, since a mind reader could not read another mind reader’s mind; everyone else (except for a selected few) knows her as a Disabled. Even though both of her parents are ARCs, people still thought she is a Disabled. It happens from time to time, a Disabled would be born from two ARCs, not often though.

When Professor Kane mentioned the rumour about people with three abilities, Clarke almost flinched at that. Key word: ALMOST. She has three abilities, three combined together to make her a very formidable and probably the scariest person alive.

Clarke is a mind reader, but she also has mind control and power thief. That PRETTY much means she has all kinds of abilities. And she can just KNOW anyone’s ability because she can read their minds.

Octavia, her best friend, is a fire breather and a metal materializer (ability to materialize any form or shape or kind of metal out of thin air), packed her bag quickly and came to Clarke’s side. She knew only that Clarke is a mind reader and nothing else.

Raven followed shortly after Octavia, she is a technopathy (ability to manipulate technology) and a damn genius without that mentality power. Raven also has the privy knowledge of Clarke’s mind reading ability... only.

“Are you ready yet? I can’t wait to get to the cafeteria,” Octavia exclaimed. Today was Wednesday, it was technically known as dessert day, as there would be various desserts to select from. And it was definitely one of Octavia’s favorite days.

Clarke swiftly packed her stuffs and led her friends to the cafeteria.

They picked up whatever they wanted for lunch and met with their group, or precisely it was known in school as Clarke’s group. Only the people in Clarke’s group and her parents knew about her mind reading ability.

Clarke’s group consists of Octavia, Raven, Bellamy (Super strength and super speed) and Wells (Teleport and Cloning). Clarke’s group is one of the most popular groups in the school, due to the presence of Octavia, Bellamy and Wells, since all of them possessed two abilities. Although Raven probably contributed to the popularity too, for she is a genius, plus she is also hot.

Some people just do not understand though, how Clarke is the leader of the group when she is pretty much a nobody (Disabled), except for being a pretty face.

Clarke is the leader of the group, pretty much because she is the one who holds them together. Raven is Clarke’s sister (adopted), Wells is Clarke’s childhood friend, Octavia is Clarke’s childhood best friend and Bellamy came along after, he is really protective of his younger sister.

Since Clarke was young, as a mind reader, she learnt not to show any emotion other than happy. Smile, laugh and poker face contributes all of Clarke’s facial expressions. The only ones who have ever seen Clarke break down in tears were Raven and Octavia, and that was the day her father died.

Half way through lunch time, loud murmurs started going off in every direction. Slightly curious, Clarke zoned in on people’s thoughts to try to comprehend what was going on. That was when Jasper jumped to the table to announce the big news, which Clarke already knew.

“Guys, the Supreme Commander’s daughter will be enrolling into our school!” Jasper pretty much shouted. He is always the one who bring news to their table.

And then Monty with his boyfriend, Miller, walked over; followed by Maya and Harper. He shyly greeted them all. Monty and Clarke shared several classes together, they are considered good friends.

“You’re joking! The Supreme Commander’s daughter? Wouldn’t she like a total badass? Lashing with her family’s environment control?” Octavia fired questions after questions in her excitement, “Wouldn’t she take away the first place from our group? Do you think we could make friends with her? Do you think she would wanna hang with us?”

The first place referred to competitions they join as a group, a fighting competition. Mostly with the use of one’s powers.

Clarke chuckled and asked Octavia to calm down. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be fine. Clarke will know what to do if it comes down to that,” Bellamy answered, referring to the competitions. Clarke always knows what to do and makes plans and predictions for a fight before it even begins.

Raven then supplied her thoughts, “We wouldn’t even know if the rumour is true anyways, The SC lives so far away, our city is not as grand as others, why would he send her here?”

Jasper and his group decided to seat themselves at Clarke’s table as he motioned for everyone to circle around as he whispered another news, “I heard the Supreme Commander is sending his daughter here, not just for school, I heard it was for a test. I think something is happening.”

“Like what?” Clarke asked, genuinely curious. Although Clarke could read minds, she prefers not to do it most of the time.

“I’m not sure, that is all the information I have, but I know! Something is happening, where we cannot see,” Jasper still whispered with the same low voice.

Even if Jasper is quiet, the news would soon spread anyways, since people with super hearing could probably hear him.

“Sounds interesting, I wonder if His daughter is hot,” Raven said with a smirk.

There is never much news about the Supreme Commander’s family, they are very secretive. Rightfully so too; throughout history, a lot of people have tried to assassinate any Supreme Commander’s children when they are still young and unable to grasp the use of their ability properly. Abilities are commonly passed down through the generations although many times, the children’s ability could be different from their parents. Although it’s also been said that the Supreme Commander’s ability is usually always passed down; that ability being environment control – the ability to manipulate wood, water, earth, fire, wind, electricity and any other elements at will.

“He has two daughters, I heard. The older one is Anya and the younger one being Alexandria. I heard Alexandria would be the next Supreme Commander as she holds the power,” Jasper whispered conspiratorially.

“I always wondered how you know all of these information,” Wells asked suspiciously.

“I never reveal my sources!” Jasper beamed proudly as Maya giggled at her boyfriend’s cocky look. Wells just stared suspiciously. Clarke knows of Jasper’s so-called “sources” but she doesn’t say anything, Jasper’s group doesn’t know of Clarke’s ability. Jasper’s “sources” being that his mother worked for the Supreme Commander as a cleaner; Jasper talks to his mother often through online messengers. You know how in a big mansion/castle sort of place, the knights would sometimes gossip among themselves and other occupants of the palace somehow got hold of these news. That was how, but Clarke kept her mouth shut and just smile.

Wells was going to say something else just as the warning bell rang.

“Oops, gotta run, see ya guys,” Jasper picked up Maya and ran off with his super speed. Monty, Harper and Miller just slowly excused themselves. After the group exchanged their goodbye’s, they all went to their own classes.

The day went by quickly and classes were over, Clarke, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy and Wells walked back home together as they live in the same neighborhood.

When Clarke and Raven got back home, it was empty like always. Abby is usually busy working at the hospital, she is good at what she does. She is a healer, which makes her even more valuable in her field. Although she always blamed herself that she wasn’t able to save her own husband. After the death of Jake, she usually tries to busy herself with work to redeem herself.

Clarke never blamed her for anything, because she knows that life is just the way it is, you can’t save everyone when their time is up. So she chose to just remember the happy times she used to spend with her father. She wanted to talk to Abby about how she should stop blaming herself, but she never had the chance to do so.

“Abby said she prepared dinner and it’s in the microwave. And we can just heat it up when we are hungry,” Raven’s voice broke through Clarke’s heavy train of thoughts.

“Ok,” was Clarke’s curt reply.

Seeing Clarke’s solemn response, Raven quickly spoke up to dissolve the mood, “Remember, the TV’s mine from 7 to 8. I need to watch that obviously lesbian bachelorette dump all those straight guys.” It worked as it got a laugh out of Clarke, “Okay, although I’m still not convinced that she’s a lesbian.”

“Keep watching and we’ll see,” Raven winked before she rushed off upstairs to do her assignments. Clarke just shook her head before she went to her own room and started on her own assignments.

The next day, an assembly was called forth in the morning and every teachers and students were gathered in the auditorium. Although Clarke noticed there appeared to be hidden guards lurking in the shadows. There was loud chattering everywhere, all the students trying to predict what was happening today.

Principal Jaha got onto the stage and silence fell instantly. He greeted everyone in his customary speech with his booming voice, made a few announcements.

After it seemed as though that was all the announcements for the day, Principal Jaha still stood at the pedestal unmoving. A deafening silence was throbbing with tension in the whole auditorium.

Finally broken when he spoke up again, “Students, I know there have been rumour regarding the Supreme Commander’s daughter. And today, I would like to confirm the rumour going around. Everyone, welcome…”

Loud footsteps were heard before a girl similar to Clarke’s age appeared from behind the backstage. She was followed by three other girls and one boy.

“… Alexandria, The Supreme Commander’s youngest and her sister, Anya.”

With that, he bowed to the girls and stepped down from the pedestal, allowing her to take over.

Normally, Clarke doesn’t read others’ mind, but she does when she is assessing her opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. Which means that she always read minds during a competition. And if Clarke’s group would ever have to fight the Supreme Commander’s daughters’ group, she would need this knowledge now.

Clarke watched and analyzed the newcomers, using her mind reading powers. The boy, whose name is Lincoln, is Anya’s personal guard and childhood friend of the sisters. He looked imposing with his large built. His power is golem transformation – his ability to be able to transform into a stone golem made out of huge boulders, providing immunity to most attacks and giving him super strength but slow and cumbersome; or into a wind golem, mostly transparent and easily hidden, giving him super speed but decreased strength.  _“Interesting power. I guess it’s one or the other.”_

The two girls behind Alexandria, Echo and Monroe, they are both Alexandria’s personal guards and close friends to the sisters. Echo has super hearing and supersonic scream – which, do not underestimate this power, it could cause serious damage, both to targeted person and the affected area around the target. _“I wonder if she was named after her power was discovered.”_ Monroe is a griffin shifter – a half lion, half eagle, after the shift, she would possess the ability of flight and strength and agility of a griffin. _“Why am I not a griffin shifter? I am a Griffin, granddad was a griffin shifter too. I wonder if she and I are related.”_

As she was about to check Anya, a voice that commands attention and respect rings out from the girl on the pedestal, _Lexa_ , thought Clarke.

“Thank you for welcoming us to your lovely school, Principal Jaha,” Lexa first addressed the principal before she addressed the students. But the speech was lost to Clarke as she tried to analyze Lexa but somehow couldn’t. The next thing she knows, Lexa was staring right into Clarke’s eyes.

It is the greenest and most expressive eyes Clarke had ever seen. Even though her whole body is rigid and controlled, her face void of emotion, her eyes are so expressive and so beautiful. But what the eyes are showing Clarke now is not good, they are showing displeasure. Since Clarke couldn't read Lexa, she observed her. Lexa has beautiful brown wavy locks, cute little nose, plump lips, strong arms and legs and a body to die for. Clarke looks up into those beautiful green eyes again, and this time she sees amusement and a slight almost nonexistent smile tugging at a corner of her lips. Clarke quickly looks down with a small show of bowing her head in embarrassment for being caught trying to read Lexa’s mind and staring.

Although to say the least, Clarke was surprised. She couldn’t read Lexa’s mind, could it be that she is also a mind reader? But then again, a mind reader would not know if you tried to read their mind and failed. There is something different about Lexa, but what is it?


	2. I want to read you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, right, there are about 14 chapters that I need to re-post here. So I need to read through them and try to correct some of my typos and what-not. 
> 
> BTW, Italics are for thoughts, if you haven't already figured it out.

The whole of Lexa’s speech was lost to Clarke and it ended too soon before she could grasp anything at all. After Lexa’s speech, there were soft murmurings around the auditorium and silence enveloped them again as soon as Principal Jaha’s taken to the pedestal.

As a last attempt to understand what had just passed, Clarke decided to read into the nearby students’ mind. Although what she had gotten was not very helpful, apparently it wasn’t just her who wasn’t concentrating. Then again, it wasn’t her fault, she thought, it was those eyes! The eyes the colour of the softest newly grown grass, yet there seemed to be a storm brewing in her eyes, as if she had seen all the horrors in the world. The others’ thoughts aren’t as pure as hers.

 _“She’s hot, I wonder if I could bang her.” “If I could get her to be my girlfriend, I would be the next Commander.”_ (The Commander is second to none, except for the Supreme Commander, it is usually a position of the Supreme Commander’s partner or child). And several other thoughts along those lines were going through their minds. She had no idea why, but those thoughts alone made her blood boil.

She risked one more glance at Lexa as Principal Jaha was closing his speech; those damned green eyes are staring right into her ocean blue eyes, as if she could see her soul. Clarke felt like she wasn’t the mind reader, maybe Lexa was. She averted her eyes as soon as Principal Jaha dismissed the assembly.

Octavia and Raven who are also in Clarke’s class, walked up to her. On their way out, none of them spoke, Octavia and Raven seemed to be deep in thoughts. And Clarke is still trying to contemplate the weird puzzle that is Lexa.

As they passed groups of other students, the thoughts that Clarke read just now were being voiced out loud around them. It made Clarke feel disgusted and see red. She decided that she didn’t want to hear anymore. And for the second time in her life, she used her strongest power: mind control.

An abnormal complete silence, except for the footsteps of students, filled the space, Raven and Octavia snapped out of their thoughts and glanced around them in confusion. It had never been quiet after an assembly, or anytime at all in their school, except for when it was demanded from the principal. Students in ARC High tend to be on the more talkative side of the scale compared to other schools like TonDC High School.

“What the hell just happened?” Octavia whispered lowly, as if afraid to break the silence. Raven shrugged as a response, having no idea herself. Clarke remained passive as if she had no clue what they were talking about.

Bellamy ran up to them, “Clarke, so what do you think?” Clarke knew what he was referring to without asking, do we have a chance against them?

Clarke merely shook her head, “I don’t know, they seem quite formidable, and there’s something strange…” _About Lexa._  She left the last of her thoughts unsaid, afraid of what, she wasn’t sure. Of giving life to that thought, or that Lexa would hear her? Clarke never feared anyone, because she knows she could never truly be harmed, but Lexa… makes her stomach churn and her heart throb in an almost painful way.

“Strange, like what?” Wells spoke up behind Clarke, having just caught up with the group. Clarke turns her head just a little to look at Wells from the corner of her eyes and then shakes her head. She hastens her steps to get away from them.

Bellamy, Octavia, Wells and Raven all share concerned and odd looks among each other. Silently asking, without speaking, they were all worried about Clarke’s weird behavior and what was it about the Commander or her people that had Clarke so tight-lipped?

Back in homeroom, everyone settled down in their seats and their homeroom teacher Mr. Ryler announced that they will be getting a new homeroom teacher, and almost all their previous teachers will be changed too. Mr. Ryler then introduced their new homeroom/sports teacher to them, “Everyone, this is your new homeroom teacher and I trust that you guys will be welcoming him with open arms. Mr Gus-“

A huge man with a big beard stepped into the classroom and interrupted My. Ryler’s introduction, “General Gustus, I would prefer all of you to call me as such, no exceptions.” He directed this first to Mr. Ryler and then the students with a dangerous glare. One could easily see the bobbing of Mr. Ryler’s Adam apple as he swallowed loudly and the nervous glances of several students.

Mr. Ryler quickly composed himself and ran off after a few quick words of, “See you then, students. Have a great day, General Gustus.”

General Gustus continued to stand at the center in front of the class, staring down at all the students. Making many of them squirm in their seats, even the resident badass, John Murphy. Octavia just chose to ignore the glare and looked out the window, Raven did the same except she was tinkering with some metal parts in her hands. Clarke just stared with her head held high back at Gustus, showing that he could not frighten her. No one scares Clarke, NO ONE!

Gustus noticed her defiant challenging stare and glared back, it was as if they were having a silent battle of dominance. Until it was broken by someone clearing their throat outside of the class. General Gustus seemed to have broken out of a trance and walked to the table before he motioned for someone to walk in, “Everyone, your new classmate, Commander Alexandria Wild.” Clarke turned to the door to watch the door open and someone walked in.

When Lexa walked in, Gustus gave her a small bow of the head to show his respect. Many of the other students also bowed their heads as is customary of greeting to the Supreme Commander.

However, Clarke just stared into Lexa’s eyes without bowing her head, which Lexa returned. Lexa raised an eyebrow after a while, and Clarke finally seemed to remember her place, blushed a deep red before lowering her head in a bow. She missed the tiny little smile tugging at Lexa’s lips.

Gustus, who had seen the whole encounter, was irritated at first that the blonde student would be so rude as not to bow to Lexa. Then after seeing the blonde blush and Lexa giving a tight smile, the tension in his body released. All other students still had their heads bowed.

“I am Lexa.” Lexa started addressing the class, “Since I would be sharing this class with all of you from now on, I do not expect to see everyone bowing their heads to me every time I step in. I am here to study, treat me as you would a fellow student.”

“But do not overstep the line,” another girl walked in and introduced herself as Echo. “Your hands or tongue might not be safe, if you do,” followed by another girl who introduced herself as Monroe.

“Raise your heads. Gustus, please commence the roll call.” Spoken out as more of an order than a sentence. As soon as Lexa finished her first order, Clarke couldn’t help the way her head rapidly snapped up to watch the enticing girl. Gustus nodded his head and sat down on the chair at the teacher’s table.

Clarke’s eyes followed Lexa as she walked down to the empty seat beside her, “Is this seat taken?” They continued staring into each other’s eyes, even as Clarke failed to answer the question. In the meantime, Echo and Monroe had found themselves a seat close to the seat Lexa had chosen.

The whole class was watching the odd exchange between Clarke and Lexa, including Octavia and Raven. After who knows how long, maybe a minute or two? Clarke opened her mouth, as if to say something. And awhile more later, it was apparent that Clarke just hung her mouth open and nothing else.

“SWOOSHH!!” A loud whipping noise came from one side of the classroom, Octavia and then another, “Whipped!” Raven shouted.

That successfully snapped Clarke back to attention and another deep red blush formed on her pale face which Lexa found incredibly adorable. Clarke lowered her head and her hair covered her face and she murmured softly, only enough for Lexa or whoever with super hearing to hear her, “No, it’s not taken.”

“Thank you,” Lexa whispered gently as she took her seat. Lexa then nodded her head to Gustus as he finally began the roll calling.

When Gustus finally called out, “Clarke Griffin” and Clarke shyly raised her hand and said, “Present.” Lexa whispered to try the taste of her name on her tongue, _“Clarke.”_ Clarke, having heard her name being called from the beautiful girl next to her, liked how the k in her name clicked as Lexa said it.

When homeroom was finally over and everyone had left to go to their next class, Clarke still remained on her seat with Octavia and Raven hovering behind her, trying to get her to move.

Clarke’s mind finally cleared up after a moment and she took a deep sigh before she stood up and turned to Raven and Octavia, “Alright, let’s go.”

“What the hell, Clarke?” Raven, obviously confused by Clarke’s odd behavior, “Wait, wait, wait, JUST wait!”

Clarke turned back around to face Raven, to which Raven quickly grasped her shoulders tightly and asked, “What have you done to my sister, and where is she? Who are you?” Raven asked only half-jokingly.

“I’m fine, Raven, just… I don’t know. I think I need some time to think it over myself,” Clarke sighed, defeated.

“I think it’s obvious,” Octavia spoke up beside the sisters. Raven just glanced expectantly at Octavia and Clarke tilted her head to the side.

“As lame as it sounds, I think you’re under her spell. Love at first sight or whatever the shit they call it,” Octavia explained. Both the sisters raised an eyebrow at Octavia with a strange look in their eyes, before they turned to each other and laughed out loud at the ludicrous idea.

“Oh, that was a good one, O,” Holding onto her stomach to try to hold in the uncontrollable laughter, Raven then slowly raised one hand to wipe away the moisture at her eyes from laughing so hard.

“Yeah, you amuse me, O,” Having composed herself and stopped laughing, Clarke patted Octavia on the back before she led Raven by the waist to their next class. Octavia puffed her cheeks and pouted, feeling annoyed but followed behind the terrible sisters. “I wasn’t joking,” Octavia muttered under her breath so that Raven and Clarke couldn’t hear her.

The day passed by in a daze for Clarke, Lexa happened to be in all of her classes and most of their teachers have been changed except for their history teacher, Professor Kane.

Lunch time came, Clarke sat down at their usual table with Octavia and Raven.

Clarke’s thoughts went to Lexa for the umpteenth time today. _Why can’t I read her mind? Why does she make me feel things I have never felt before? What is wrong with that girl? Or is there something wrong with me? Am I sick? I haven’t been able to concentrate on literally everything today, except for her god damned intense eyes. She is a mystery, and I would solve her. Wait, what if Octavia is right? What if I am in love with the girl? No, not possible, I have only just met her. True, she is intriguing, being the Commander and someone I can’t read yet not exactly a mind reader… Oh! I got it, Octavia must be half correct!_ With that thought, Clarke jumped up from her seat, Octavia and Raven widened their eyes in surprise just as Bellamy and Wells approached the table.

“What’s up with Clarke?” Bellamy asked in a whisper to no one in particular. “I say she’s in love with the Commander,” Octavia answered in a whisper too.

“What?! I have known Clarke for forever, she’s not into girls!” Wells whisper shouted.

“Hey man, we’ve all known Clarke since forever,” Raven answered just as softly, annoyed, “But there wasn’t any indication that said she was into guys either.”

“But Clarke and I made out once,” Bellamy provided. And the whole group, except for Clarke, exclaimed in surprise and disgust for Octavia, “WHAT?!”

“It wasn’t a big deal, we just kissed… very hot though,” Bellamy explained himself.

“Shut up, Bell, I don’t wanna hear anymore,” Octavia covered her ears and kept making lalala noises, as Bell kept trying to tease her by telling her all the things they’ve done together. Although most of what he said wasn’t true at all, he kept doing it just to tease Octavia.

Clarke who still seemed like she wasn’t aware of her surroundings at all, sat down just as abruptly. Bringing the attention of the entire group back onto her.

_She must be an enchanter, or a seductor, plus her environment control. Wait, maybe just an enchanter? Maybe that’s why I kept feeling like my head is in the clouds every time I’m close to her. I have never seen an enchanter, would they know it when you try to read their minds and then make your head muddled up so that you can’t read them? I think I should hit the library after this. There should be some documents about that in the record._

With all that sorted out, Clarke nodded her head. With everyone in her group still staring at her, Bellamy finally asked, “Okay… What was that?” In answer, everyone just shrugged.

Raven gently touched Clarke’s shoulder which made Clarke turn to face her. Raven then pressed her forehead to Clarke’s, “You don’t seem to have a fever,” Raven said as she pulled back, “Are you sure you’re alright, Clarke? Do you want to go back home early and rest?”

Clarke moved one of her hands to hold onto Raven’s on her shoulder, she intertwined their fingers, “I’m fine, Ray, I think I might have figured something out. Do you mind going to the library with me after school?”

“Sure, kiddo, whatever you need,” Raven answered with a gentle and soothing voice as she moved her other hand to pat Clarke’s cheek, “Whatever you need.”

“Thanks Ray,” Clarke answered and looked into Raven’s eyes with ‘sparkly starry eyes’ as Octavia called it.

“Aww... Why can’t I have a nice sister like that?” Octavia groaned and shoved Bellamy, “I want to exchange my brother with yours, Clarke!”

“Never! She’s mine, go find another somewhere else, O,” Clarke grabbed onto Raven’s arm with both hands and stuck her tongue out at Octavia. After a minute of Octavia and Clarke fighting over Raven, all of them settled down and chuckled at their own childish antics. They resumed eating their lunch and Octavia turned to Clarke, “I would go to the library with you too, after school, if you want.”

Bellamy and Wells voiced their agreement and Clarke nodded in thanks with a big grin, “Sure, the more the merrier.”

“Just remember that it’s the library, so don’t have too much fun now,” Raven added, to which Clarke rolled her eyes, “Yes Mom!”

When lunch break was over, their next class was combat class. They went into the combat stimulation room to find a stoic woman with her back ramrod straight as if she was standing in attention to a commanding officer.

When everyone had entered the room, the woman introduced herself in a commanding, almost as if she was shouting sort of voice, “My name is Indra! You are to call me Corporal. Do you understand?”

Many students nodded while a few muttered, “Yes Corporal.”

“I can’t hear you! Speak louder, do you even have a spine? Stand straight!” Indra shouted at all the students, except for Lexa maybe, she was already standing as if there was a plank behind her back.

“Yes Corporal!” All the students shouted in unison while Lexa remained silent.

“What are you, stupid?! I did not ask you to shout!” Indra yelled at them again.

“Yes Corporal!” Everyone answered in a firm loud voice together.

“Much better,” Indra nodded and then instructed everyone to wait until their names were called, she wanted each and every one of them to get into the stimulation room so that she could test their combat abilities against computer stimulated opponents. Powers were allowed, she announced in the end.

One by one, their name was called to test their abilities. Students are not allowed to watch the progress of their classmates’ so as not to violate the rule that one should not be allowed to know another’s power without their consent. It is a school rule, made to avoid discrimination.

When Clarke’s name was called, Octavia squeezed Clarke’s shoulder and Raven nodded in Clarke’s direction to show their support. Clarke then stepped forward, “Here, Corporal.”

Indra nodded and then indicated with her head to get in the stimulation room.

After Clarke entered, she stood in the center of the room, waiting for whatever was going to appear. When they did appear, the environment changed too, to a dark street alley. The targets were human like, faceless, mindless and soulless. Clarke could not read the mind when there is none, she wasn’t bad at physical combat, but she wasn’t warrior great at it either. She had always been able to predict their moves before they even struck but now she couldn’t. These faceless entities had no powers either and Clarke was physically outnumbered with 8 to 1.

 _Shit._ This was the first time Clarke had been ushered into a combat stimulation room, and this was the first time Clarke ever felt so helpless and weak. These computer stimulated targets are armed, some with daggers, others with pipes, hammer and whatever sort of weapon that a thug might possess. Clarke was unarmed but she wasn’t going to back down.

As the first one rushed her with a dagger, she ducked out of the way and ran to the closest weapon she could find. However before she reached the baseball bat, she was hit on the back of her calf by a huge metal pipe. She fell face first onto the cold hard floor. _Good thing these stimulations are virtual reality, that would have left a huge bruise._

Before the pipe was raised in midair, ready to finish Clarke off, she quickly scrambled out of the way and grabbed onto the baseball bat. As soon as she grabbed it, she turned around to deflect another sledgehammer slung her way.

The first one with dagger quickly rushed from her right side, with the dagger point facing her while she was still fighting off the sledgehammer guy. Just before the dagger guy got too close, Clarke gave a hard push with her baseball bat to shove her attacker far enough for her to give out a hard swing to her right side. Catching the dagger guy by surprise and hitting him right on the side of his head, knocked him out cold.

She quickly turned to face her other attacker, but being too slow backing away, she got a huge slash across her left arm. 7 to go, but Clarke felt like she might not be able to bring another one down at all.

She kept fighting anyways, knowing but can’t do anything about it, that she was being backed into a corner. She managed to knock another one of them down before her back met the wall. _Shit!_

As a last attempt to save herself, she tried to reach out with her mind to reach someone to steal their power. She knew it was supposed to be impossible, she had learnt about it: how in a stimulation room, you would not be able to touch the outside of the room. Meaning that you would not be able to control someone to come to your aide, you would not be able to steal their power unless they’re inside with you. You would not be able to gain any advantage from the outside, period.

She tried anyways, as they kept getting closer to her. When all seemed lost, she suddenly found something, from who, she couldn’t tell, but she grabbed onto it desperately. And then she unleashed it, a wall of fire burst out everywhere from her, burning her 6 adversaries into the ground. She panted harshly, almost wheezing, as she watched the computerized targets turn into ash.

Then everything was gone, back to a clean white room. Clarke glanced around, slightly confused, before she remembered that this was a stimulation. She turned to the glass where Indra was watching her, but she thought she saw a glimpse of black hair before it vanished. Indra nodded and spoke through the microphone in a rather harsh and disapproving voice, “Clarke Griffin, you can get out now.”

Clarke nodded her head and stepped out of the room. As soon as she was out, Indra said, “C minus, go to your assigned group.” Clarke nodded in answer again before she walked off. _What the hell was that?_ referring to the odd burst of power she gained in the stimulation room. 

ARC High comprises of primary, middle and high school, a ladder system sort of school. And since Clarke is 17, in the junior year, her combat classes are combined with freshmen, juniors and seniors alike of the high school section.

She was overjoyed when she found out that Bellamy and Wells are also in C minus group.

“I thought when she said C minus, she meant I was really bad at combat so I am assigned to C minus. But I can’t believe you two are here too,” Clarke hugged both of them.

“Hey Princess, I was pissed too when Mr. Miller told me to go to group C minus. I was like, man, I have always been in A, but he just disregarded me,” Bellamy greeted with a scratch behind his neck.

“Well, I didn’t say much, my new combat teacher, we have to call her Corporal, and she is all kinds of fierce. And I had always been in B minus group, so it wasn’t that big a drop for me.”

“I don’t know, I think now that the Commander is here, the teaching system has changed significantly, especially in sports, combat and history class,” Wells complained, “It’s not exactly fair, you know?”

“Well, we are still at about the beginning of the year so I guess it’s not too late to suddenly change the syllabus,” Clarke patted Wells’ arm to try to console him.

“Yeah, but, my dad didn’t even tell me anything. I thought he would at least let me know,” Wells was slowly calming down, but he still seemed quite pissed off at all the sudden changes.

“Clarke!” Octavia pounced on Clarke’s back and Bellamy had to steady them so that they wouldn’t fall on their heads, “We’re in the same group! How awesome.”

“Hey O,” Clarke chuckled.

“Guess I’m not the only one here,” Raven appeared shortly behind Octavia.

“Yo what’s up! The whole gang’s here!” Octavia cheered loudly, still clinging onto Clarke’s back, eliciting chuckles from all of them.

Then Raven added with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “We can be up to all kinds of booms and bangs around here.” All of them laughed at that and they started off into an easy and comfortable conversation. A kind of easy going atmosphere only people who have known each other for a long time could feel around each other.

After some time, heavy footsteps were heard and everyone turned around to the noise. Indra returned with the Commander in front of her. As Indra stood a few feet in front of them, Lexa walked further towards them to join the group.

Indra announced in a booming voice, “Everyone, this is your new assigned group. There are exactly 30 students in this group. So now, what I want you to do is, pick a weapon of your choice, or go bare handed if you choose, then pair off with someone, start sparring. I will come to each pair to assess, correct, adjust and give advice about your fighting stances and techniques. No powers allowed.”

All of the weapons are wooden, so as not to hurt each other. Clarke had chosen a katana, Octavia chose a long sword, Raven chose a spear, Bellamy took a double sword and Wells chose a scimitar. After all of them had chosen a weapon, they regrouped.

The five of them looked at each other, unsure who to pair off with. Wells declared that he would pair with Bellamy, but stopped when Indra shouted one more thing, “You are not to pair up with someone from your own team. This group of 30 people, if you have not yet noticed, consisted of 6 groups of 5 people, from the same team.”

“Well, that destroys the fun,” Octavia rolled her eyes before they all moved to find a new partner. Octavia was looking around to hopefully find a familiar face when she accidentally bumped into the wall. When she was about to fall on her ass, strong hands grabbed her arms to steady her.

“I apologize, miss, I wasn’t looking where I was walking,” A gentle strong voice said to her. That was when she realized that she did not bump into a wall, she bumped into a guy whose body was as hard as the wall.

“Oh no, I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking either,” Octavia apologized to the huge man, who she had to look up to see his face. _“Wow, he’s sculpted like a Greek god, he is handsome. Oh wait, this is the guy in the Commander’s team. Maybe if I can pair up with him, I can test his combat abilities.”_ Octavia stared at him for a moment before the guy finally cleared his throat.

“Oh, sorry, my name is Octavia, I was just wondering if you would like to pair up with me…?" Octavia raised an eyebrow at the end of her sentence, to show that she is asking for his name.

“Right, nice to meet you, Octavia. My name is Lincoln. And yes, I would like to pair up with you, I was bummed there for a bit,” Lincoln answered.

 _“Perfect.”_ “Great,” Octavia grinned at him and then walked off to the sparring field, fully expecting Lincoln to follow.

Clarke was wondering who she should pair with, she could pair with Harper maybe. Harper is not especially good in physical combat, she is more of an elastic person, literally. Clarke was about to set off to find Harper when she felt fingers tapping on her shoulder, she turned around to come face to face with those damned green eyes again.

“Hello Clarke, would you be my partner?” Clarke loves the way Lexa pronounced her name and that question, if put into another context. God, it makes Clarke blush a deep red before she covered her face with her hair and nodded.

“Thank you,” A smile threatening to break out on Lexa’s face as she held onto Clarke’s hand to lead her to the sparring field. _“What is this girl doing to me?”_ They both thought. _“I can’t help wanting to smile every time I see her adorable blush,”_ was Lexa’s thoughts and as for Clarke, _“I wonder if I could use mind control on her to stop her trying to enchant me. That is, if she is even an enchanter. Maybe I can try, after sparring. Or…”_

After seeing Clarke and Octavia pairing off with the Commander’s team, Raven decided to do the same, “Heyo, I’m Raven, wanna team up? Uuh… wazzat name?” Anya turned around to look at her intruder, a pretty brunette, probably in her junior year.

“Woah, you’re prettier up close than I thought you would be,” Raven stared in amazement.

“Anya. Thank you.”

“Anytime, I would give you all the compliments in the world if you would let me. Did I tell you I’m Raven already?” Raven wiggled her eyebrows.

“Yes, you did. If you want to team up, shut up and let’s go,” Anya answered nonchalantly and walked off, with one hand raised and her index finger giving a ‘come hither’ to Raven.

“Oh yeah, feisty and sexy.”

Wells paired off with Monty, Harper paired off with Monroe, and everyone seemed to have paired off. But Bellamy is still alone, _damn,_ he turned around and round to look at his surrounding, " _I thought there was supposed to be 30 people."_

“I guess it’s just you and I now, name’s Echo, you?” A girl walked up to Bellamy and offered her hand. Bellamy grasped her arm, “Bellamy.” Without another word, Echo let go of his arm and they headed to the sparring field.

Indra went around, giving instructions and correcting the students’ stances. Lexa was obviously a much better fighter than Clarke was. Clarke swore that Lexa had somehow dropped her to the floor almost as many times as she had been in her mind today. Clarke was getting frustrated but she wasn’t going to lose her focus due to anger.

_If only I could read her mind… I’ll try again._

Clarke tried to read Lexa’s mind again this time and Clarke heard _“She’s a tough one, I-"_ before she was suddenly cut off and couldn’t read anymore and then she was on the floor… again.

 _"What is wrong with this girl?"_ Clarke thought frustrated, before she groaned on the floor, refusing to get up just to be thrown back down again. _I swear I do not like this girl, and as soon as I can get out of her enchantment, I would dislike her._

  

 


	3. Fall down, Get back up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, by the way, since I am still editing and reviewing my work. Any ideas on how you want this to go?  
> I was thinking of going for Ravia (Raven x Octavia), but Ranya is cool too :|

Chapter 2.5 

When Clarke just laid there unmoving, Lexa got the idea that she wasn’t going to get back up again so she offered Clarke her hand. As a tanned hand came into Clarke’s sight, she heard a sweet voice, “Come on, get back up, you can do this.”

Clarke audibly growled in frustration before she reached for Lexa’s hand and pulled herself up. Lexa gave a small smile to Clarke, almost as if she’s showing her approval, before she stepped back and got back into a fighting stance. Clarke huffed loudly before she did the same.

Before she decided on her first move, she told Lexa, “I’m sure you’re having a lot of fun dropping me like a leaf.” The only thing that achieved was a smirk on Lexa’s face.

“And I love your smile,” Clarke said just as she rushed forward to try to catch Lexa off guard. It almost worked, Lexa was taken off guard but she recovered too quickly for Clarke to do anything significant.

They spent a long time doing a back and forth, almost as if they’re dancing. Clarke immediately knew Lexa was holding back, cause previously Lexa would drop Clarke to the ground every time within 5 minutes, or less really. Although Clarke didn’t appreciate Lexa going easy on her, she did feel like she’s finally learning some new moves.

After a while, Clarke used one of the moves Lexa used just now, dropping Lexa to the floor. She was so elated that she was about to cheer when suddenly her feet were swept out from under her. She fell right on top of Lexa, “Never turn your eyes away from the opponent until you are sure they are out for good.” She looked into Lexa’s eyes which were a lighter green than usual, filled with mirth.

Clarke was getting off of Lexa when she was suddenly spun around and Lexa ended up on top, with a wooden dagger pointed at Clarke’s throat.

“You’re dead, didn’t expect that, did you? I even went easy on you, only for us to end up here. Lexa 28, Clarke, 0. But who’s counting?” Lexa smirked cockily which Clarke responded with an eye roll, “Apparently you are.”

Lexa chuckled, it was such a beautiful sound that Clarke swore in that moment that she would always try to make her laugh more… _As a friend, of course. Or not, no, I don't even like her._  Clarke just glared up at Lexa until the Commander's chuckle subsided and cleared her throat. They then became aware of exactly how close they were to each other and the weird position they ended up in. If not for the harmless wooden dagger on Clarke’s neck, it would have been oddly sexual.

They weren’t going to kiss, at least Clarke thought they weren’t. The mood was there, the attraction was there, but they didn’t really know each other at all. Lexa’s eyes, though, they are just so beautiful, she couldn’t take her eyes off them. _I could probably kiss someone I don’t know that well, she is very attractive after all. Then again, what if I was only enchanted by Lexa's use of her powers. ...Why would she even want to use her powers on me, if she really did?_

They have stayed like that for quite some time, and neither seemed to be wanting to move at all. So Indra decided to step in, cleared her throat and shouted, “Get back to training, students!”

They quickly jumped apart from each other, stood up and dusted themselves off before they moved back into position to resume their sparring.

Whereas for Raven and Bellamy, they didn’t get into a compromising situation with their partner like Clarke but they did however, kept getting thrown off onto the floor every few minutes. Raven got frustrated and stayed on the floor, “Warrior Princess, give me a rest, will ya? Pretty please? I am starting to think that I have to change my name to Ravdoll, the ragdoll.”

Raven pushed herself back up only to get socked in the chin and fell back right onto the floor.

Raven groaned as soon as she landed, rubbing her sore chin, “Really, warrior princess?”

“Yup, really,” Anya answered before she offered Raven her hand to pull her back up, “That is the last of them.”

“Them as in punches?” Raven grabbed Anya’s hand and let herself be pulled up.

Anya punched Raven in the guts, not enough for Raven to gasp for air but just enough to feel a sharp pain, “No, them as in your pretty ass on the floor.”

Raven rubbed her stomach, trying to protect it just in case Anya decided to surprise attack her again. She winked at Anya, “So, you think my ass is pretty?”

Anya’s face tinted a light pink, “Shof op!” before she threw a right hook which Raven thankfully dodged.

Octavia was by far the strongest fighter in their team when powers are not considered. Although she still had it easy since Lincoln was very much a gentleman, he pushed her hard in combat but he did not drop her. Indra was unhappy that their spar seemed a little too docile. She stepped in and asked Lincoln to step down which Lincoln protested but kept quiet after a dangerous glare from Indra.

“Come at me and show me what you’ve got. What’s your name, student?” Indra inquired to which she was answered firmly, “Octavia.” Indra nodded approvingly when she noticed the fire in Octavia’s eyes and defiance in her stance.

On the other hand, Bellamy got so frustrated and without Clarke or Octavia to get him to calm down, he roared at Echo and brandished both his wooden weapons into the floor with his super strength. The double swords snapped in half and pieces of the smashed floor flew around them. Echo had the time to widen her eyes before Bellamy pushed her up against the wall by her neck, several feet away from where they were originally sparring, with the use of his super speed and strength. Bellamy did not strangle her or squeezed her neck too tight, he merely just pushed her up to the wall as a restrain. Due to her panic and being pinned up against the wall, Echo screamed, the power of the supersonic sound waves shoved Bellamy at least 15 feet before he landed on the floor.

Since Bellamy was not expecting much retaliation at all when he pushed Echo up against the wall, he was completely unprepared for the scream and landed pretty roughly. He landed on his right side, smashed a few inches into the floor before he bounced a few times further away and finally stopped in a slide to the opposite wall of the sparring field.

A while ago when Bellamy roared and smashed his swords, he had garnered the attention of everyone in the group and Indra. Clarke and Octavia had tried to stop him as soon as they could, but everything happened too fast for them to follow up. Indra was going to stop them too, but she was also too slow to do anything.

And now Bellamy laid on his side at the opposite side of the wall from Echo, everyone was deadly quiet before Octavia shouted, “Bell!” That one shout seemed to jar everyone out of their daze. Octavia rushed to Bellamy’s side, followed by Clarke and the rest of her group. Indra shouted for someone to go get the paramedics before she followed in their direction.

“Oh my god,” Echo breathed out, covering her mouth with one hand, hardly believing what she just did. Just as Octavia reached Bellamy, he stirred and sat up, rubbing his throbbing head, “Ouch! That scream queen can really pack a punch.”

“Oh god, Bell, you’re fine!” Octavia threw herself into Bellamy’s arm and squeezed the air out of him. The tension in the room seemed to completely dissipate after that.

“Can’t breathe, O.” Octavia slowly released him and checked him for wounds, “You alright? Head hurts? Ribs? How about your arm? Clarke, is he alright?”

Clarke knelt down beside the siblings and checked for any visible signs of injuries, poking and prodding at several places and then determined that Bellamy should most probably be fine but should still be looked at by the paramedics who would be arriving anytime soon.  

When the paramedics had arrived, Indra instructed everyone to resume their training. Clarke walked towards Echo, looked into her eyes, “It’s not your fault, Bellamy is to blame for losing his temper. I assure you this would not happen again and Bellamy should be apologizing for himself after he got the all clear.”

“You think he will be completely fine? I was caught off guard and accidentally used almost full power on him,” Echo asked worriedly.

Clarke was unsure whether she should touch Echo since they didn’t really know each other, so she just quickly squeezed Echo’s shoulder, “He is stronger than you might think he is.” Clarke gave Echo a tiny smile before she returned back to Lexa’s side to continue with their training.

Aside from being somewhat cut up and several bruises, Bellamy was deemed healthy enough to carry on with class. He sheepishly walked over to the bench on the far side of the room where Echo was seated.

“Hey, um… I just want to say I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have blown up like that,” Bellamy scratched the back of his neck, looking as embarrassed as someone in his position should be.

“Nah, it’s cool. I’m just glad you are fine. It is also partially my fault, I guess I shouldn't have pushed you so hard and about that scream too…” Echo looked up at Bellamy, slightly ashamed too.

“No, no, I mean, it's good for training. You're strong, really. So, uh… we cool then?” That was Bellamy’s way of asking for forgiveness.

Echo nodded, “Yeah, yeah, we’re ‘cool’. Come on, let’s get back so I can beat your ass up.”

Bellamy groaned, “What have I gotten myself into?”

“Fall down and get back up,” Echo twirled around to face Bellamy with a smile before she jogged off to the field. Bellamy shook his head in amusement before he hastily followed her.

 

 


	4. I want to know you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW, I have added a few extra scenes and some parts from the original.
> 
> You know... I never realized that I wrote such long chapters until I had to re-read the entire thing again to correct them :|

Chapter 3

All classes were over for the day, Clarke was sore all over, due to all the beatings from Lexa. She was almost certain that Lexa had been taught sword fighting since before she could walk. Lexa nodded to Clarke, as if showing appreciation for her time to train with her before she walked off.

Clarke shouted to Lexa’s back sarcastically before she could stop herself, “Yeah, thanks to you too, Lexa. I am totally into S&M and pretty sure I would be sore all over tomorrow.”

Lexa turned back around with a slightly amused smirk and a worried look in her eyes that showed that she wasn't certain whether Clarke meant it or not. Clarke decided to answer the unasked question with a slight smile, “I was joking.”

Lexa widened her eyes very slightly in surprise, it would have gone unnoticed to an untrained eyes. She would have thought that Clarke knew what she was thinking, but she was plenty certain that Clarke did not read her mind. Clarke was a mystery to her, as Lexa was to Clarke.

As a mind reader, you get used to knowing what people are thinking and the kind of facial expression or look in their eyes. Or maybe Clarke was just more observant than others, she wouldn’t know since she never really talked to another mind reader before.

Lexa nodded before they both went on their own way.

Clarke and the gang met up at the library after the school had ended for the day.

“So what was it that you’re looking for, Princess?” Bellamy was the first one to ask.

“Anything you could find on enchanter. Do not ask why,” Clarke’s tone was definite and final, in a no-questions-asked manner. She sauntered off to a section of the library that would hopefully archive the information she needed. After she was out of sight, Bellamy, Octavia, Raven and Wells exchanged an odd look and Octavia shrugged her shoulders before they followed to the section that Clarke went.

After long moments of searching through the archives, they finally emerged with a book that seemed to be centuries old, it was slightly dusty with very old and worn hard covers. It goes to show that not many people have come upon this book, it was titled ‘The Great Change and Its People’.

“Sounds ominous…” Octavia said with a chill of a shiver running up her spine.

“Sounds promising,” Clarke corrected her.

“O might be right, Clarke, that book was practically hidden at the very back of the library. In some odd secret passage… Who knows what kind of black magic it might conjure?” Wells added, placing a hand on Clarke’s shoulder to try to persuade her.

“Oh come on, a book with the name ‘The Great Change and Its People’, what sort of a name would that be for a book with black magic spells?” Clarke swatted Wells’ hand away from her shoulder and laid the book down on the floor.

“Yeah, and whatever sort of black magic it might be would not even compare to the sort of explosive magic I can conjure,” Raven said with a wink.

“I don’t like this, but if you think what you need is in that book, I won’t stop you,” Bellamy gave Clarke a squeeze on her shoulder. Clarke placed one hand atop Bellamy’s and nodded her head in thanks before she opened the book.

**About 45 minutes ago,**

“Clarke, can we stop this yet? There’s nothing here!” Octavia complained as she loudly settled herself on the floor and crossed her arms, like a child about to throw a tantrum.

“O, I never asked you to come with. You could go back if you want,” Clarke continued to scan through book titles without even glancing back at Octavia. Octavia grumbled under her breath before she sighed her displeasure noisily as she stood up.

All of them continued browsing around the place, trying to find a book about enchanters, if there was even one, except Octavia. With her arms crossed, she dragged her feet as she moved around the back of the library, doing nothing but giving her body something to do while waiting for them to finish Clarke’s impossible quest of knowledge.

“This is one of the stupidest ideas she has ever had for an adventure yet,” Octavia muttered to herself and kicked at the wall. The brick she kicked gave way and moved backwards into the wall, then that entire section of wall slid forward, then to the side, revealing a secret tunnel passage behind it.

“CLARKE?!” Octavia shouted in extreme shock, with eyes wide as a saucer.

“What is it now, O?” Clarke yelled back as she stomped to where Octavia’s voice came from at the back of the library. “Oh… my. GOD!” Clarke exclaimed as she caught sight of what Octavia was currently standing in front of.

The others all rushed to them, curious as to what had the both of them reacting in this way.

“Bloody hell, sweet Jesus. Absolute-fucking-ly neat, how did you find that, O?” Raven walked towards where Octavia was still standing flabbergasted, in reverence.

When Raven finally reached Octavia’s side, she snapped out of her stunned daze and grabbed onto Raven’s wrist, “Don’t you even think of going in there!”

Just as Raven was about to protest, Clarke stepped past them, into the entrance of the tunnel and declared, “We are going in.”

Raven just smiled a sweet smile at Octavia before she used her other hand to peel Octavia’s hand, finger by finger off of her wrist. When Octavia’s hand was completely off, Bellamy and Wells who had exchanged worried looks already went in after Clarke, Raven gave an ever sweeter toothy smile to Octavia before she set off herself.

Octavia just watched on as everyone slowly disappeared out of sight, she grumbled, “Why do I always have to be the one to find these kinds of things?” Then she jogged off after her companions.

As they got deeper into the tunnel, it got darker and darker until they couldn’t even make out where they were walking to. Clarke grabbed onto one of the wooden torches hung on the side, “Octavia, could you do us the honour?”

Octavia glared at Clarke, “Well, since we’re already here, let’s do this, bitches. But if we die, it’s on your head, Clarke.” Clarke rolled her eyes at Octavia's dramatics and Octavia breathed out a puff of fire and lit up the torch.

“Thanks,” Clarke smiled at Octavia and she walked to the front of the group and led them to whatever would lie ahead. As they walked, Raven asked Octavia how she had found this tunnel again and Octavia explained to all of them how bored and awesome she was that she found this place.

They had been walking about 10 minutes before the tunnel widened into a big round space. In the middle of the room, was a tiny pedestal. And on it, was an old book.

Clarke walked towards it to inspect the book. “Really, we came all this way to find a book in the end?” Octavia literally face palmed.

“Well, what could we expect? This is a library we are talking about, O." Although slightly disappointed herself, Raven tried to justify the situation. Then she thought better of it, "But you know, I totally have seen this before! Once we took the book, the ruins would collapse and we would have to run for our lives. How fun!!” Raven cheered out loud for her own genius. Octavia huffed for the umpteenth time today and conceded defeat, this was literally one of the worst adventures they had done so far, "This place better go down once we took the book." 

"Be careful what you wish for, O," Wells warned.

“’The Great Change and Its People’, I think this book refers to the revolution, this could be what we were looking for!” Clarke turned to the others and explained excitedly.

“Great! So can we get out of here now, princess?” Bellamy asked and glanced slightly towards where they come from, “Just in case, who knows if that wall would return to its original position.”

Everyone agreed, Clarke handed the torch to Wells and grabbed the book before they all rushed towards the entrance as fast as their legs could take them, except for Bellamy. If he had really wanted, he could probably get back in five seconds flat and Wells could just teleport back. But what's the fun in all that?

A crashing noise was heard behind them after a few seconds, Clarke turned back around to see that the pedestal that held the book had somehow collapsed and fell on itself. With nothing else or no one else in sight, there must be some form of mechanism around here that kept that pedestal standing while the book remained. Clarke sure hoped that there wasn't going to be a monster chasing after them now and she decided to run faster. 

Luckily for them, the wall was still in position and they had to figure out how to make it go back which Octavia suggested that they could just replace the misplaced brick to where it was. Maybe that would make it go back and she was right and the wall had moved back. No evidence it was ever open, except for the book in Clarke’s hand.

****Back to the present,** **

Clarke looked through the table of contents which seemed to have precise accounts of what happened decades into the revolution when there was already a Supreme Commander and then finally to the many different powers that there existed. There was a list of different powers and each page contained details about 5 to 7 different abilities. Whoever had written this book, Clarke deduced that person must have been gotten immortality. Usually people who had immortality would live for a pretty long time, especially if they were a health freak.

Clarke finally found where enchanter is, on page 586. She flipped towards that page when a shout was heard, “What are you kids doing here?”

It was a security guard, “What’s that you have there, students?” All of them turned towards Clarke, always expecting her to have a solution for everything.

“Nothing, it’s just an old book, security,” Clarke smiled sweetly at the security, closing the book and held it under her right arm.

“You do realize that you are not supposed to loiter around the school at this late hour, right?” the security asked suspiciously, glaring at the book under Clarke’s arm.

“We were just about to leave,” Clarke smiled with a small bow of head, “We didn’t know it was this late already.” Clarke moved to get past the security when suddenly her feet were frozen in spot. She glanced down to see that it was literally frozen, in a block of ice. She looked back up to the security with a hard glare.

“What is the meaning of this?” Clarke asked dangerously. Bellamy, Octavia, Wells and Raven who were following Clarke, stiffened when the security started to walk towards her, almost as if they were ready to break out into a fight with the security if he was to harm her. Since everyone in the group thought that Clarke was the most ‘helpless’ one of them all, even if she was the leader.

“I could not allow you to leave with a book from the library, especially not an old book like that,” the security said, standing about a foot from Clarke.

“We are just borrowing the book, Mister. We would return it as soon as we’re done with it,” Clarke smiled sweetly and then a confused look appeared on the security’s face when Clarke once again used her power (second time in two weeks, that's a record). The ice block on Clarke’s legs evaporated as quickly as it had appeared and the security stepped back with an emotionless face, even his eyes looked empty, and he spoke with a monotone voice, “Okay, as long as you return it before anyone noticed it was missing, I do not want to get into trouble.”

“Thank you so much,” Clarke beamed at the security and opened her bag to stuff the book inside, before she walked out with the others.

“What the hell was wrong with him?” Octavia asked, clearly confused at the security’s two totally different reactions. At first, he was hot on their heels and then all of a sudden, he just decided to let them go? It didn’t make sense to any of them.

“Beats me,” was Raven’s useless answer.

“Maybe he just had a change of mind,” Clarke turned back to smile at her friends, “Come on, let’s just be happy he let us off. We could have been in detention now.”

“Yeah, before we get too happy, let’s get out of this place before the gates close, it’s almost 6.30,” Bellamy said and ran ahead of the group. The school had a policy that all gates are closed at 6.30 and then a lot of dangerous traps or other craps will be set off on the campus. They were apparently really strict about their security, as if the school hides something big… Hopefully, it’s not the book that they just took.

“Crap!” The others cursed before they ran after Bellamy to get out, but of course, Bellamy was already out of the gate, waiting for them.

When they finally got to Clarke’s place, all of them got in and went to the living room where Clarke set down the book and hastily started flipping to page 586 where details about enchanters were supposed to be.

Clarke read through the three paragraphs on enchanters, it’s not much and definitely didn’t help with Clarke’s case. She looked utterly confused after that, and maybe a little disturbed.

“Is something wrong, Clarke?” Wells asked worriedly.

__“_ Enchanters: Enchant. Their power is mind and beauty related and the extent of their power depends on several factors. If the victim has a weak mind, they would fall prey easily. If the enchanter is particularly attractive, they would be more likely to enchant someone._

_When enchanted, a person’s mind become particularly fuzzy and they would have difficulty forming a logical thought. Under enchantment, a victim has to be asked to do something in speech but the victim could still reject to do so, if they were not deeply enchanted._

_Do not confuse an enchanter and a mind controller. For a mind controller could easily make a person do anything without rejection, since they do not have the ability to question. However, since the power struggle after the death of the second Supreme Commander, the last mind controller had been killed to avoid a similar situation.”_

Clarke numbly shook her head to Wells’ question as she turned to the table of content, found another thing and turned towards a page. The group watched as Clarke began reading about what happened after the death of the second Supreme Commander.

“I think Clarke just got absorbed into history,” Raven whispered to the others behind Clarke’s back.

“I thought Clarke hated history?” Octavia whisper asked.

“Haven’t we done all these whisper talking a lot more than usual today?” Bellamy asked in return.

“Maybe we should snap Clarke out of whatever daze she’s in?” Wells suggested.

“I’ve got an idea,” Octavia smiled devilishly and then signaled for everyone to huddle around. More whisperings went around, before they sneak upstairs. Clarke was so absorbed into the book that she didn’t even notice them gone.

 _“The third Supreme Commander came to power at the age of 13 after the death of his father. He changed after he came to power, He became emotionless and cruel. I didn’t know what happened, could he have been hardened from his father’s early death or there was something else going on. Until one day, He had revealed the truth when he was 35 years old. He had been under the spell of a mind controller after he came to power. People respected the Supreme Commander and if someone were to reassert themselves as the new ruler, it would not have been taken lightly of. A mind controller may be strong but would be unable to control a whole population of people. So she had taken to control the Supreme Commander instead. He had only escaped the grasp of the mind controller by luck and still pretended that he was being controlled after that, to get a chance to kill his controller. After the announcement, the family of the mind controller was all killed, to prevent a similar situation from happening ever again. And to this day, there had been no more mind controller and probably never will again. For the better of this world too, imagine if there was a mind controller with the ability to read minds too, that person would know when their victim is not being controlled, and would reassert their ability again.”_ Suddenly Clarke felt like it was talking about her and feeling really criminalized. 

After Clarke was about done going through what she had been reading, the gang appeared. Octavia giggled as she positioned herself beside Clarke and covered her ears as much as possible with one hand and with her other hand, put a honk as close to Clarke’s ear as she can get. Then she honked, totally and utterly shocked Clarke out of her skin, making her jump literally off of the floor where she was sitting.

“Damn it, O!” Clarke shouted at Octavia after she had calmed her heartbeat some, all the others rolling on the floor laughing. Octavia clutched her belly and wiped tears from her eyes from laughing too hard.

“Sor-sor- sorry,” Octavia wheezed out, still laughing hard, “But- you-ou should have seen your face!” Clarke shook her head and sighed with the ghost of a smile on her face.

_Whoever had written this book must have been close to the royal family. Well, so what? Am I supposed to be one of the most wanted criminals now, even though I have never done anything wrong? Now I know why I never told anyone of my ability. But then again, does that mean that one of the children of the mind controller didn’t get killed? Because abilities could only be inherited down the same family tree._

After everyone had calmed down, they all settled down with 2 baked frozen pizza, one pepperoni and another Hawaiian. With the television turned on and the reality TV show 'My One Prince' playing, Wells finally decided to ask why Clarke had needed to find what an enchanter was.

So she explained about the weird effects that Lexa Wild had on her, “There is something strange about her. She somehow makes my heart throb almost painfully and a weird feeling settled in my stomach. I couldn’t read Lexa’s mind, and she had been on my mind all day. When she is around me, I couldn’t think of anything other than her eyes. And worst of all, she keeps making me blush!”

“Ok, slow down a little right there, Clarke. Everything you mentioned seemed normal for a crush, except for the part that you can’t read her mind,” Raven raised both hands in front of her, palms facing Clarke.

“What?!” Clarke looked shocked and even slightly appalled by the idea.

“It makes sense, you know, Clarke?” Octavia fortified Raven’s statement, “Heart throb, butterflies in stomach, can’t get her out of your mind, her beautiful eyes?”

“Hey! I never said butterflies or beautiful eyes!” Clarke defended indignantly. Octavia just shrugged as if saying ‘what else could it be?’ Bellamy laughed at Clarke’s reaction and Wells looked like he was offended by that idea.

“Well, our Princess here just got herself an impossible crush. On the Commander, huh? You're reaching up high, Clarke.” Bellamy teased.

Clarke was about to object when Octavia added, “Commander Princess, that sounded way too perfect, maybe it’s not impossible after all, Bell.” Clarke totally deflated after that, both shoulders sagging as the siblings laughed at Clarke’s expense.

“To her defend, Lexa is one hot girl, I would totally bang her myself, if not for Clarke’s crush on her. I approve,” Raven patted Clarke’s shoulder with a mock-serious face.

“You guys are incorrigible, you know that, right?” Clarke shook her head before she too chuckled along with the others.  Wells, on the other hand, had remained silent throughout the conversation and forced a fake laugh with everyone.

"I'm telling you, by the end of this show, I swear she's gonna dump all the guys and say she's in love with her producer!" Raven said during one point of the show. 

After their impromptu pizza and tv night, everyone had left to return home except for Clarke and Raven who went back into their own rooms. Clarke decided to contemplate more on Lexa and the old book. She decided to flip the book around some more. She realized that a part of the book was calling to her. She kept flipping the book until she came upon a loose page numbered 666, on the page, there were words in a language she could not understand. But just from the number of the page, she could guess that it was nothing good, she decided to keep the page, just in case. She was never afraid, plus if she didn't keep it and it fell into the wrong hands, this could be disastrous.

The next day went on as usual as it could be, with Clarke’s mind constantly on Lexa. After school that day, the group returned to the library to quickly make a trip back to return the book.

Octavia moved the brick to reveal the secret passage and Bellamy was the one to go in to replace the book and it was done within a minute. Bellamy mentioned the destroyed pedestal and that he just left the book on the ruined pedestal. Clarke told him that it was fine and they left as soon as they came.

The school week passed quickly, too fast for Clarke's mind to catch up to everything that was happening. Her mind was constantly on Lexa, the way she said her name, the way she laughed, the way her eyes looked so bright when she turned to Clarke. With them having all the same classes was not helping either, Clarke literally had no time to clear her mind and think properly. She practiced with Lexa during every combat class, learning more about Lexa than she did about combat.

Sometimes, she would have Clarke stop sparring to watch her execute a move. More than the technique itself, Clarke was more concentrated on the way Lexa’s body moved so fluidly and graceful as if she was dancing instead of fighting. Clarke had taken to call her by Lexa, whereas every other students called her by her title of Commander or Alexandria.

During the weekend when Clarke thought that she could have a reprieve from all the thoughts about Lexa, she was surrounded by Raven, Octavia, Bellamy and Wells. They discussed about a lot of things but much of it was about Echo, Anya and Lincoln. And those people only just reminded Clarke how close they were to Lexa.

Octavia talked about how Lincoln was an amazing fighter and an incredible guy, but that she was not very happy about how Lincoln kept going easy on her. She also said that she much preferred to train directly under Indra, even though she was harsh and almost totally scary. Raven talked about how Anya was an ass, a pretty one though. Anya was ruthless and mean but also nice sometimes. Bellamy added in about Echo being a scream queen and how she always totally kicked his ass. He wasn’t happy about that, and he had been trying his hardest to get better. Octavia and Bellamy would spar together in their spare time to improve themselves. Wells had remained silent most of the conversation, watching Clarke’s faraway look as if her mind was somewhere else. Finally he veered the conversation towards how a fighting competition should be nearing and that all of them should start to prepare for it.

Clarke agreed with Wells, just to distract herself from thoughts of Lexa. After that, they went to the Blake’s house where they have a sparring ring in their backyard. All of them fought without their abilities except for Wells. Wells made a clone of himself so that their number would be even.  

Then at the next assembly on Monday, Indra and Gustus announced that there would be a survival test for high school students that week. It would be a five days’ thing, starting the next day. By the end of the five days, the remaining students would be given extra credit. In the meantime, there would be no classes that day and students are to pair up and register themselves at the counters set up in the auditorium. By 4pm that day, every unregistered student would have to come back to the auditorium to allow the teachers to pair them up.

A final announcement was made by Principal Jaha, “How exciting, isn’t it? Students, one of the biggest events is coming up soon: the annual National Fighting Competition!” Principal Jaha paused to allow time for the students' cheers to die down before he continued, “The team registration starts next week and would last for three weeks. Then we would have a small interschool competition to choose our five top teams to compete. After that, hopefully we would be able to win our fourth National trophy in a row!”

All the students cheered again, this time with chants of, “Princess, Princess, Princess”, a few of them closer to Clarke’s group patted Clarke, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy and Wells on the backs or shoulders. Clarke’s nickname of Princess had been given due to her being the leader of the winning team in their nation. Although nobody would say it out loud, they all thought that Clarke won the competition while almost doing literally nothing to deserve it.

For all of their fights, Clarke was the strategist, she would talk to her group before the fight started and then get handed a forged katana from Octavia who had materialized it out of thin air. She mostly told them who each of them should fight with, what their abilities were and what their possible weaknesses were. She would aim to distract the weakest member of the opposing team and fend them off until her team mates had taken out the others before they finish off the weakest member too.

In some small cases, she would find another mind reader in the opposing team. She would be the one to face off with the mind reader so it would be a fair fight, sort of. Until one of the others could come to help her while she would use minor mind control to stop the opposing mind reader from reading their minds.

Some jealous others have wondered the what if’s. ‘What if Clarke’s team mates had all been taken out, they think Clarke would drop in less than a second on her own. She had difficulties just fending off one person sometimes.

After the students calmed down enough for Principal Jaha to continue, “But wait, that is not all. This year is different. Our country is registered in the International Junior Fighting Competition this year! So instead of one, our country would be represented by the nation’s three strongest teams to compete in it.”

The cheer this time around was deafening, with the possibility that they could be representing their country in the competition was exhilarating. Clarke’s group had always been the winner of these competitions, but now two more groups would be chosen too, FOR THE INTERNATIONAL competition, not the National ones.

After all the cheers had calmed down, Principal Jaha dismissed all the students so the high schoolers could start looking for someone to pair with and that if the high school students need a specific place to find someone, they could meet in the football field. All other students were to return back to their classroom to resume classes. A quiet groan could be heard from the younger students, several complaining that they thought there would be no classes today.

Clarke walked to Octavia and Raven, “Would any of you pair with me?”

“Sorry, Clarke, I just asked Ray to pair with me,” Octavia smiled at Clarke, not so apologetically.

Clarke pouted, “That’s not fair, she’s my sister!”

“Next time, Clarke,” Raven promised then suggested with a wink, “Although this would be a good time to try asking the commander?”

Clarke almost looked scandalized, “What?”

“Yeah, Clarke, to be honest, I have never seen you express so much emotions since… a long time ago,” Octavia told Clarke honestly, “Plus you have been staring at her nonstop.”

“I do not stare!” Clarke frowned and walked off to find Bellamy and Wells.

“Hey guys, any of you can pair with me?” Clarke asked hopefully.

“Ah, I would love to, Princess, but Wells just agreed to pair with me,” Bellamy scratched the back of his neck.

Wells quickly added, “But one of us would be more than happy to pair up with you if you can’t find someone by 3, alright?” Bellamy looked at Wells oddly before he dumbly agreed.

“But maybe you should consider pairing with the commander, Clarke, I saw her walking towards the football field just now. I am certain she would keep you safe,” Bellamy told Clarke in that protective brother way. Wells looked annoyed when Bellamy mentioned Lexa, although no one noticed.

Clarke sighed, “Yeah, fine, I will consider it.” She then walked off towards the football field to try her luck at finding someone who could pair with her. She was a good student but she wasn’t good at everything, and their exams take place in an anti-power room, which would make sure no students could cheat. An extra credit would do amazing in her report book, so she needed someone she knew who didn’t hate her or would turn their back on her and would be able to get both of them through five days of survival. Currently, she knew only Jasper’s group would do, although they weren’t the strongest in combat or survivability.

When Clarke reached the busy football field, her eyes immediately settled on beautiful green eyes. Lexa exuded an aura that said she didn’t want anyone to get too close to her but it didn’t stop the overexcited Arc students to crowd her and ask if she could be their partner.

Clarke didn’t like to show too many emotions, but around Lexa, she couldn’t help all these feelings that keep emerging from her. Jealousy, anger, embarrassment, frustration, and those only amounted a little of what Lexa brought back in her. It was as if Lexa was breaking down all these invisible invincible walls she had built up since she was young. Peeling off the layers that showed who she really was, even when Lexa was not around, her walls were coming down and fast.

Right now, Clarke was feeling jealous at all the people around Lexa and anger at Lexa for making her feel this awful. As Clarke stomped towards Lexa, the students parted to let her through like the red sea. It was actually due to her wave of anger, aka her mind control power, to make them part.

When she reached Lexa, all the surrounding students moved feet away from them, by Clarke’s will, of course. Clarke was glaring at Lexa so much, it was almost a surprise that Lexa didn’t even flinch. But it wasn’t, because Lexa never backed down from any challenges.

Anya, Echo, Monroe and Lincoln who had stood slightly away from Lexa, moved away just like the other students, without their consents. They even turned away from watching Lexa, even though they had really wanted to watch the interaction, just in case they needed to defend Lexa. They knew that Lexa could protect herself, but it didn’t stop them from worrying. Only lucky thing was that, Echo would be able to hear whatever would be exchanged between the two.

“Clarke,” Lexa said the single word while watching the storm in Clarke’s eyes intensely. It was almost too much for Clarke, those intense eyes and that melody that is Lexa’s voice saying her name with so much meaning, Clarke’s knees shook under her weight. She would have buckled under the weight, if Lexa had not reached out to hold onto Clarke.

“Are you alright? You don’t look well, Clarke,” Lexa tilted her head in concern.

“I don’t know,” Clarke replied in the breath of a whisper.

“You,” Clarke breathed out louder, almost venomously, causing Lexa’s hand to slide away from Clarke’s arm. Lexa frowned and her pupils dilated in defense, almost as if she was ready to fight off Clarke if she needed to. Clarke stepped closer to Lexa, into Lexa’s personal space. Clarke made sure that she controlled the surrounding people’s minds so that they would not listen in to their conversation, when Clarke would speak about her weaknesses.

Clarke spoke under her breath so she could keep her volume down, angrily, “I don’t understand! I hate you!-“

Lexa’s pupils dilated more. Clarke moved even closer to Lexa.

“-You make me feel things!-“ Clarke hissed out that part, almost as if those feelings were not to be.

Lexa’s frown turned neutral, her pupil constricted, and her eyes showed her confusion.

“-What are you doing to me?-“ Clarke ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

Lexa was starting to feel more and more amused by the seconds.

“-I am scared, Alexandria. I don’t understand why you make me feel this way! I can’t think when you’re around me, you make me blush, you make me frustrated, you make me angry at everyone who makes you laugh! And when you laugh at me, you make my heart beat out of control. How are you doing this to me, Alexandria Wild?-“ Clarke’s voice was in a crescendo until she huffed out, “Please…” _Please tell me that I am not falling for you and that you are messing with my head._ Clarke had moved so much closer in her outburst that their noses were almost brushing together.

Knowing that Clarke usually called her Lexa, hearing Clarke say her full name, Lexa knew she was trying to hold a serious conversation. However she couldn’t help the smile that was trying to appear on her lips. She let it show for a moment before covering it up with a poker face.

“I am sorry about that, Clarke. But what do you want me to do about it?” Lexa asked, as impassive as she could.

Clarke answered with an almost timid voice, “Partner up with me on this survival test…”

“Why?” Lexa’s eyes lit up, but otherwise her face was as stoic as ever.

Clarke clenched her fists on her sides, mustering up enough courage, she spoke firmly, “I want to know more about you.”

Lexa smiled, showing her teeth and her eyes shone.


	5. A torn page in life

Chapter 4 

Clarke almost had to do a double take. Although she hadn’t known Lexa for long, she knew that during that whole time, Lexa had never smiled so brightly before, at least not at her. It involuntarily brought a small smile to Clarke’s face too.

“I know,” was all Lexa said and Clarke had no idea what she was talking about.

After a confused look crossed Clarke’s face, Lexa continued to elaborate with a lopsided smile, “I know that you have been trying to read my mind.”

Clarke flushed. _It wasn’t possible, no one was supposed to be able to know that I have tried to read their mind. At least I haven’t ever encountered one that could. Or that, for God’s sake, how is one even able to do that? Have all the things I have learned been wrong?_

“Who are you? …what are you?” Clarke couldn’t help herself asking even though she knew that as frustrating as Lexa was, she would never tell her.

“That is for me to know, and for you to find out,” with the smug look still on her face, she added although in a much lower tone, “If ever.”

Clarke sighed, she was getting tired of this game, or whatever this was between them, “I don’t got all day, Commander, do you want to be my partner or not?”

Lexa’s face suddenly turned stern and with her jaw clenched, she asked coldly, “Fine… but tell me, why do you want to read my mind? Why do you want to know about me?”

She added just as Clarke was about to answer, “You do realise it is a crime punishable by death, if someone tried to read the Supreme Commander or the Commander’s mind, right?”

Clarke physically blanched at Lexa’s line of questioning, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fist until her knuckles turned white, she spoke through her gritted teeth with a growl, “Then, tell me, _Commander_ , why am I not dead yet?”

Lexa just stared at Clarke emotionless and waited. The staring lasted about eight minutes before Clarke broke the intense competition, “I am just curious about you… You are mysterious and beautiful- I mean, you are just... just!” Clarke released a deep breath, annoyed at herself. “Does it even matter, if I am about to die anyways?”

With another superior smirk on her face, Lexa moved one hand to rest on her chin, as if she was thinking, “Your offense is against me, so I should decide what punishment you should face. Until then, you are a free person. Good day to you, Clarke.”

With a nod to Clarke, Lexa turned around to find her sister. Clarke’s knuckles were still white from being clenched so tight, she felt like she wanted to wipe that smug look off Lexa’s face, either by force or some words of sort. But she had no idea how to do it, so as Lexa turned away from her, she just released her mind control on everyone and walked away from this infuriating ball of frustration that is Lexa.

When the power was removed, everyone started crowding into the previously emptied space. Anya, Echo, Lincoln and Monroe could finally turn back around to face Lexa and Echo heard the first word from Lexa, “Anya.” since Clarke approached.

They quickly rushed towards Lexa to make sure that she was unharmed. Upon reaching her, Anya urgently grabbed hold onto Lexa’s shoulders, look at her from head to toe then turned her around and around and did a thorough inspection.

Lexa sighed and shook her head when she was facing Anya again, “I’m fine, Anya. We were just talking.”

“I don’t trust that girl,” Anya growled venomously, glaring in the direction of Clarke even though Clarke was already walking back towards the auditorium.

“I am going to be paired up with her for the survival test,” Lexa calmly stated, crossing her arms in defense. Either defending her decision or Clarke, she wasn’t sure.

“What?!” Anya shouted so loud that the few students walking towards them who wanted to ask to pair up with Lexa or the others around them, quickly turned back around to find someone else. They were afraid that if they stepped any closer, they might be the one strangled by Anya, who had her hands grasped so tightly on Lexa’s shoulders that it should probably be hurting a lot.

“Don’t worry about me, Anya. She is just a mind reader, I can protect myself,” Lexa moved her crossed arms to Anya’s hands, to remove her painful grip. Lexa’s face showed no pain throughout the exchange, even though Anya might have just left bruises on her shoulders.

Clarke was now waiting in the long line to register for the survival test. Everyone in front of her and behind her was in pairs. She felt somewhat left out, she could see people whispering in low voices in front of her; and even behind her, without looking, she could hear soft murmurings. Even though she could not make out the words, she could hear them as loud as if they were shouting the words in front of her face, in her mind.

_“Look, the princess is signing up by herself” “She’s gonna fail within the first five minutes.” “Know what? We could even hunt her down in the test.” “Ahahahaha, you’re evil, but that sounds fun.” “Ohh, the blondie’s by herself, guess even her team mates would abandon her if given the chance.” “A Disabled’s always gonna be a Disabled. Why do we even have her in our school?” “You know, if I replaced her in her team, I bet we could win the International’s like a walk in the park.”_

She could hear all the mockeries in her mind, she gritted her teeth to refrain from doing anything. She’s used to this, it’s always been this way. She couldn’t care less to change their mind, she couldn’t care less what they think about her… So why was it that when they were thinking lowly of Lexa that it affected her so?

 _Haters’ always gonna hate._ That’s what she tells herself. There are moments when she feels like she could just shut them all up, make them lick her boots, make them feel inferior as they were supposed to be. She always held herself back, away from all the dark thoughts, and just live her life as normal as she could.

Some might call her stupid, others might think she’s insane, to let herself be treated this way. But she would rather be known as the Disabled, rather than the scary freak with three powers. At least Disableds’ were considered normal in their world, what she is, is more a myth than anything. And she could have possibly lied to other people about how she was just a mere mind reader. Then again, mind readers were usually shunned too, since people disliked their mind being read like a book, as much as they dislike Disabled’s.

Although she was pretty sure that the Corporal, Indra, might have seen her use a fire power, derived from her power mimic. The information should be confidential and she would not reveal it to anyone, for that, Clarke was relieved.

While she was deep in her thoughts, a particular spiteful male student formed a hard sharp pebble from the floor of the auditorium and took it in his palm. He judged the size, shape and weight of the pebble before he nodded and the pebble floated above his palm. He aimed the pebble at Clarke’s head before the pebble flew hard and fast towards the back of Clarke’s head.

Clarke wasn’t even aware of the pebble that was dangerously approaching her until she heard a painful yowl from behind her. She turned around to find Lexa walking towards her and a male student grabbing his privates in agony. She had a confused look on her face before she caught on to what happened through the others’ thoughts. She gave a brief glance to the guy who was still holding onto his crotch, rolling on the floor, his name was Quint, she made a little mental note to herself. She will have a little revenge in a bit, not now though.

She gave a grateful smile to Lexa when she finally stood in front of her. She mouthed ‘thanks’ to which Lexa just nodded stiffly as she positioned herself beside Clarke.

****A while ago,** **

When Lexa had entered the auditorium, with Anya, Echo, Monroe and Lincoln following behind her, her eyes immediately spotted the blonde in the crowd. She also noticed the pebble making its way quickly to Clarke’s head. She reacted without thought, and the pebble halted in its trajectory, about two inches away from Clarke’s head.

She could feel a tugging on her hold on the pebble then she glared at the offender, a bald boy with a huge tattoo on one side of his face. The boy also turned about the same time to search for the bastard who had stopped his assault. When he caught the Commander glaring back at him, he widened his eyes in surprise and a ghost of breath, “Commander...” left his lips. He lost his hold on the pebble for a brief moment. But that moment was enough for Lexa to turn the pebble on him and knocked him off his feet when it hit him squarely on his crotch. A pained shout rolled off his lips as he fell onto the floor.

Lexa then fit the pebble back into the floor of the auditorium where it belonged as she strode towards Clarke.

****Now,** **

Anya walked with Lincoln towards the front of one of the line, to where the teacher was writing down names of the paired up students. Clarke watched curiously and Lexa had an amused glint in her eyes.

Lincoln gently shook his head and grabbed Anya’s wrist gently which Anya just slapped off.

 _“This is not gonna be nice,”_ Clarke heard Lincoln’s thought and her curiosity spiked even more.

When Anya reached the front of the line, she glared at the pair of students unlucky enough to be there. They gulped under her intense glare and one of them asked, “Something wrong?” Even the teacher had a confused and worried look on her face, and she was about to tell Anya to queue at the back of the line when Anya commanded, “Move.”

The braver of the two frowned, while the other tried to pull his partner away, “Sorry?”

“I said move…” Anya warned and the braver student defiantly lifted his head, “And what if I don’t? Are you gonna go cry to your papa?”

Anya gritted her teeth as she started a countdown, “Three… Two…”

The scared student tried his best to get his partner away, “C’mon, let’s go. We can wait at the back again, it doesn’t kill us.” The braver student just deferred him away and stood his ground.

“One…” And the countdown ended, Lincoln sighed heavily. Anya lifted up one leg in an unnatural speed, kicking the student straight below his jaw. The student was lifted off the floor by the force and flew backwards a few feet before he landed on his ass harshly.

Anya then turned to the teacher, “Anya and Lincoln.” Due to shock, the teacher immediately registered their names with no question and then Anya turned to leave, with Lincoln quietly behind her. The fallen student sat up and moved his jaw from side to side to test its movement; he looked almost fine except for the gash on his lower lips.

“What the hell were you thinking, you idiot?” His partner asked him as he went to help him up.

“It’s wrong that she thinks that she could just have her way just cause of who she is,” He wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

His partner sighed, “And see what you got yourself into?” and shook his head.

Clarke finally recognized them as she got closer, Miller and Monty. Miller being the one who had been kicked in the chin, she remembered that he was almost the only one in Jasper’s group who could actually fight. He had enhanced durability, that would explain how Anya’s powerful kick only left a gash on his lips without any broken tooth or other worse damage.

The teacher called them back to register their names before she asked for the next pair to step forward.

Clarke turned to Lexa with a smirk, raised eyebrow and asked in a joking tone, “Is she always like that?”

A fond smile appeared of Lexa’s lips, “Pretty much.” She turned to face Clarke with bright eyes. Clarke could see how close the sisters were by how Lexa’s features completely brightened up at the topic of her sister. It reminded her of her own relationship with Raven, a fond smile of her own graced her lips.

“Now I see why my sister always tell me about how the ‘warrior princess’ is always giving her a hard time in combat class,” Clarke joked and at the mention of warrior princess, Clarke did a quote signs with her hands.

Lexa rolled her eyes before she gave a low chuckle, “Warrior Princess, huh?”

“Yeah…” Clarke felt proud of herself for eliciting a chuckle from Lexa.

They continued to wait at the queue in a comfortable silence.

A moment later, Clarke asked with a mischievous smile, “You’re not going to follow your sister’s lead?”

Lexa scoffed at the ridiculousness of the question, she stared into Clarke’s blue eyes, lost in their depths, “You wish, princess.”

Clarke was surprised more at the title Lexa used on her than the light joke, her eyes turned stony, “Don’t call me that.” Lexa looked slightly confused so Clarke decided to explain, “Others call me that because they don’t think I deserve to be the winning team of the National fighting competition. They say it as a mockery at how I don’t do much on the ring.”

Clarke could see the storm of emotions in Lexa’s eyes as her face remained stoic, she found a hint of rage that turned to sincerity.

“Clarke, those who call you princess as a mockery are dumb. I would never mock you with a title so dear. You deserve to feel as much like the princess that you are, your beauty astounds me and you make me breathless,” Lexa confessed with so much honestly that it made Clarke blush like a tomato.

Lexa promptly cleared her throat and turned from Clarke’s eyes, as if realizing that she just made a mistake. Clarke whispered so shyly and quietly that Lexa would not have heard her, if they had not been standing so close, “Thank you.”

Lexa replied stiffly, “You’re welcome.” The silence after that was awkward and when they finally reached the front of the line, Lexa merely said their names, “Alexandria and Clarke.” Lexa walked away briskly after that, without even a glance back at Clarke as Clarke gave one last longing look at Lexa’s back before she walked off to the opposite direction.  _No, you don’t like her, Clarke…_

Clarke searched for her team mates around the school, they should still be around until 3 when school was officially over for the day. And even if they did want to leave early, they would have at least waited for Clarke, or so she hoped anyways.

She finally saw a familiar face sitting at their usual table when she went to the cafeteria. “Wells! Hey, where’s everyone else?” She greeted him with a smile.

“Hey Clarke,” He had a sincere smile of his own, “So have you found a partner?” He gave his best curious look when he asked her. Although Clarke knew better, Clarke had tried not to read his mind as much as she could, but he had been acting really odd recently. He had developed feelings for Clarke and he disliked Lexa because he thought that Clarke might be falling for her.

“Yeah, I have paired up with Lexa,” Clarke tried to put on an innocent happy look. She didn’t want Wells to suspect that she knew about his feelings. Of course, Wells knew that she could read minds but he also knew that she preferred to drown out all the internal noises with a blank mind.

_But honestly? He thinks that I might fall in love with Lexa? That’s ludicrous, crazy people talking here._

_… … Then again, what if I am falling in love with her? Is that possible? I have never even had a crush before, neither have I liked anyone beyond friendship. Sigh… I think I would have to analyze all these feelings a little later._

“Oh,” Wells frowned, “You know, Clarke, maybe you should reconsider pairing up with her.”

“Why?”

“Because, just because I don’t think she will be a good influence on you,” Wells was just grasping at straw at the moment.

Clarke gave a look that said she didn’t believe him, she guessed that there’s no turning back now, so she sighed, took a seat opposite Wells and hoped that she could still save their friendship, “Wells, let’s be honest here, shall we?”

Wells’ shoulders drooped in defeat and he gave Clarke a pained look, “Ok, fine. I like you, Clarke.”

“I like you too, Wells,” Clarke reciprocated and as Wells opened his mouth to say something else, she raised a hand to stop him, “But I know that’s not what you mean. I’m sorry, Wells, I have known you since forever and I know you don’t want to hear this. Just like Bellamy, you guys are like brothers to me, always looking out for me.”

At the hurt look on Wells’ face, Clarke wanted to try to soothe it away, “Please understand, Wells, I just can’t feel the same about you the way you feel about me. You are the first person to have ever liked me in this way, I should be happy, but I can’t. Please, I don’t want to lose you, Wells.”

 Wells gave Clarke a sad smile, “Clarke, I… love you, I have, for a long time. I know you have always respected my privacy, but sometimes I wished that you wouldn’t then you would have known that I have liked you for a long time. I would give up the world for you, if you want me to.”

Clarke shook her head sadly but Wells just continued, “I know that you didn’t like me the same way, but sometimes it takes time. It takes time to fall for someone, I kept waiting. And maybe you have just never thought of me in that way, that’s why you couldn’t imagine it, but if you give me a chance, you might fall for me. Give me a chance, Clarke, please. You might see me in a different light.”

Clarke had tears in her eyes, but she shook her head faintly, “Please, Wells, don’t. I’m not worth it, I won’t… I won’t ever feel that way for you-“

Wells stood up abruptly, knocking over the bench that he was sitting on and slamming his palms on the table, he shouted, “You won’t ever feel that way for me, or that you DON’T WANT to feel that way towards me?”

His outburst attracted the attention of the few high school students who were just casually hanging out or eating in the cafeteria.

Clarke extended her hands to hold onto Wells’ arms to try to placate him, he just shook her hands off.

“Don’t!” He was so angry that everyone could see the veins on his forehead and neck popping out.

Clarke still had her hands raised towards Wells, although not touching him, she said in her most soothing voice, “Please calm down, Wells.”

More and more high school students were gathering in the cafeteria, following the outburst and the whispers that the ‘Disabled’ was rejecting someone.

“When everyone shunned you away, I was the one there for you! What am I to you? Are you using my kindness? Clarke, I’m asking you to give me one chance, and you wouldn’t even think about that! What is it about me that you can’t like? Is it how I look? Is it because of my skin? Is it because I am not good enough for you?” Wells kept shouting, he was on a rampage.

Clarke had suppressed her emotions for so long, had not shown anger, sadness etc. But recently, her life had been thrown around upside down, inside out and every other way. She tried to control herself, but as Wells kept shouting insults at her, someone who she really cared about, she just couldn’t hold in all the anger rising up to the surface. There was a fire in Clarke’s eyes, burning with rage, but if anything, Wells did not seem to notice at all.

“And what?! You are here stupidly pining over the Commander, a girl! A girl! What does she have that I don’t except for power? Is that what you’re looking for in a partner? Is that it?” Wells sneered, “You’re an idiot, no one other than me will ever like you the same way, even less THE Commander! I bet she would rather be with-“

Clarke has had enough! It was bad enough that Wells was insulting her, and now he was going to insult Lexa too. Somehow anyone saying anything bad regarding Lexa just thoroughly infuriates her. In that moment, she had a passing thought that was forgotten in an instant, _“I guess I do like her in that way after all.”_

Clarke shut Wells up with her power and she rose to her full height, slamming her hands on the table too, “DON’T, don’t you dare finish that sentence, _Jaha!_ ”

By this time, almost all the high school students had gathered in the cafeteria to watch the showdown, including Clarke’s group and Lexa’s. Most of the students who were supposed to be lining up for registration came too, just to see what was happening. Octavia, Bellamy and Raven had rushed to the cafeteria when they heard the news about the ‘Disabled’, knowing that it was none other than Clarke. They were currently pushing their way to the front of the crowd, towards where their usual lunch table was.

Lexa wasn’t interested in the fight at all, when she decided to come to the cafeteria, she was only interested in lunch since it was slightly past noon already. Lexa had arrived just when Wells started to comment about how Clarke was pining after the Commander, her. She was instantly intrigued and she moved towards the source to see the commotion and the students parted to let her through. She was at the front, with the rest of Clarke’s group, to watch the ‘show’.

“Clarke!” Raven shouted, rushing forward to try to help dissolve whatever tension there was between the two.

“Not now, Raven!” Clarke said in a low dangerous voice which instantly stopped Raven short in her spot.

“Jaha, careful with what you say,” Clarke said through gritted teeth, “First of all, I have no idea what you mean when you say that everyone shunned me away. Cause for all I know, I have always been the outsider. Second, you were the one there for me? What about Bellamy? What about Raven? What about Octavia? Are they not people? I am certain they were always there for me too.”

“And don’t you dare mixing Lexa into this. This has nothing to do with her,” Clarke growled under her breath.

Wells who had been made to shut the hell up, had gathered a moment to calm down a little, he winced at the cold voice Clarke was using on him. Seeing the slight twitch in his expression, Clarke felt a little bad and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

She finally sighed, “I never wanted to make you feel this way, Wells. To feel like you have been used, to feel like you are not good enough. You are never one of those, so please do not degrade yourself to that spiteful level. You are an amazing person, loving, charming, kind, sweet and supportive. And I am sorry, that I don’t feel the same for you. It is probably my loss that I can’t be the one to share a future with you, Wells.”

Clarke released the mind control on Wells and she dropped back onto the bench, exhausted and shoulders sagging.

 Wells looked sad but he also relaxed, he bent down to return the bench to its rightful place and then unceremoniously dropped down on it, looking every bit defeated, “I’m sorry too, Clarke. I shouldn’t have lost my cool… I didn’t really mean all the things that I have said.” He gave a sincere look, “It’s just that I have waited for so long, I really thought that I had a chance with you, until she came...” At the end of his speech, he looked to somewhere behind Clarke’s shoulder.

With confusion clearly etched on her face, Clarke turned around to find almost the entire high school student body behind her, but what caught her eyes the most was the green eyes staring back at her. Clarke immediately turned back to Wells, with a slight blush. Even though she had not confirmed her feelings for Lexa, Wells had pretty much made it look as if she did.

Raven, Octavia and Bellamy finally approached the table and sat close to Clarke.

Clarke recomposed herself and asked hopefully, “So… friends?”

Wells sighed and smiled weakly, “Yeah, always.”

After that, the students behind them started to disperse until someone in the crowd shouted, “SLUT!”

With the blink of an eye, Bellamy turned to the source with a dangerous look, but he couldn’t determine who had said it. A lot of others had also turned to see which brave or stupid soul had shouted that, including the rest of Clarke’s group and Lexa.

Clarke didn’t even bother to look when Bellamy shouted, “Whoever said that, I dare you to do it again and I will make sure you will be very sorry.”

 **“WHORE!”** This time, the shout was louder but still no one could spot who it was.

Until someone suddenly floated into the thin air, with both hands grabbing at nothing around his neck, as if there was an invisible hand trying to strangle him. Many people just watched curiously as some of the guy’s friends tried to get him down.

He soon started choking as the hold seemed to get stronger.

“I’m- sor- sorry,” He said through choked breath, and then he seemed to breathe better and he apologized louder, “I’m sorry! Please, let me down.”

With that, he was unceremoniously dropped, he fell on his ass and choked a few more times, trying to get as much air back into his lungs as he could.

“Finn, you alright, man?” His friends asked worriedly.

No one knew who did that to him, no one… except for Clarke.

“The hell just happened?” Octavia asked and Raven shrugged, “Well, at least now he got what he deserved.”

Clarke sighed tiredly and she looked pale, it had been a long, long day for her. Too many emotions were involved; she is mentally worn out and also physically worn out from using her powers so much today.

She groaned, “I think I’m just going to head home now, I have enough drama for one day.”

“Okay, I’ll go back home with you,” Raven gave Clarke’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. Octavia nodded and did the same on Clarke’s other shoulder.

“Wells and I would need to go register for the survival test now, we’ll catch up with you guys or we’ll just see you tomorrow,” Bellamy answered for both of them.

Clarke nodded and made to stand up, but as she did, she blacked out for one moment and swayed in spot. Raven and Octavia who had just stood up together with Clarke, each of them quickly grabbed onto the arm closest to them to hold Clarke steady.

After the blackout cleared, Clarke shook her head.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Clarke? Do you need to lie down?” Octavia asked worriedly.

“Yeah, you could use my lap as pillow, Clarke,” Raven offered.

Clarke just waved them off, “I’ll be fine, I just need to get out of here.”

They nodded and led Clarke out of the cafeteria.

When they finally got home, the first thing Clarke did was jumping onto her bed. She didn’t intend to fall asleep, but she did… and she slept through the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Give me some time to continue this story, guys. I have many other stories and projects I need to catch up on, plus internship for my degree :|


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